


Izuku

by Leigheaux



Category: Moana (2016), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Based on a Tumblr Post, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Crossover, Gen, based on fanart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 23:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13375254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leigheaux/pseuds/Leigheaux
Summary: "I am Izuku of Motunui. Aboard my boat, I will sail across the sea and return the Heart of Shouto."Izuku, along with the demi-god Toshinori, tries to defeat the god of chaos Doryoku, and return Shouto's heart to him.





	1. Story of a Boy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TopazledHannah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopazledHannah/gifts).



> Edited the Chaos monster's name finally to a more common japanese word. whatever.

When Izuku had first left Motunui he’d known what a crazy thing he was doing. But as his journey progressed, it seemed more and more likely he’d see it through to the end. After all, he’d found the demi-god Toshinori, convinced him to journey with despite his injury, entered the lair of the sea pirate Katsuki, stolen Toshinori’s magical hook, escaped an enraged Katsuki with the hook and the Heart of Shouto, and made it all way to Doryoku’s domain to face the monster himself.

But that’s when it all went wrong.

The battle was intense, but short-lived. Doryoku’s body was small, maybe only the size of Izuku himself, but his power created hurricane-like whirlwind around him of bitter cold and scorching heat. He truly was the god of chaos and destruction. Besides his raw power alone, there was something about the way he fought, as though he hated you with his whole being. There was an anger inside him that was difficult to comprehend and impossible to defy. He couldn’t seem to go into the water, but he didn’t need to get that close to them to hit them.

They had lost the battle, and Toshinori had yet another injury to show for attempting to defeat Doryoku. Only this time it wasn’t his body, it was his hook. That was more than Izuku could take. He sent Toshinori away, and gave the Heart back to ocean. The ocean hesitated, and Toshinori pleaded, but Izuku was resolute. He couldn’t see Toshinori hurt again. The ocean had been wrong. Izuku had been wrong. He couldn’t do it.

After Toshinori turned himself into great hawk and flew away, and the ocean slipped the Heart back under its waves, Izuku was left with the still, silent water, and the stiller, even more silent stars.

But he wasn’t alone.

A swell of light approached him from the horizon. A shape glided through the water towards him. A stingray, of course. As big as his boat, bigger. And then, there she was. Inko, his mother.

“Mom!”

“Izuku!”

He ran across the boat to her; a few bounding strides and he was up against her. She was solid, and warm. Her breathing was back to normal. It seemed that death, instead of ending her life, had ended her illness instead.

Izuku held onto Inko, tired and overwhelmed by everything that had happened.

“I couldn’t do it, Mom,” he said, tears in his eyes. He tried to shut his eyes tight against them. But they came anyway.

“It’s alright, honey,” Inko said. “This was too big a burden for me to ask you to take on. If you’re ready to go home, I’ll be with you.”

Izuku parted with her. Her face was just as he remembered it, soft, round, and kind. Was she really dead? It didn’t matter. She was here with him, and they were going home. Climbing to his feet, ad feeling somehow stronger, Izuku made for the oar. But before he could press in into the water and take them home, he paused. He paused with the oar just above the water, just before the action that could take him away from all this misery.

“Why are you hesitating?” Inko asked from behind him.

Izuku grit his teeth and pushed on his arms, willing them to move, to take home. He was tired; he was hurt; he was disappointed. Why couldn’t he just give up, and go home?

“Do you want to hear a story, Deku?” Inko asked. “It’s about boy from an island.”

Izuku turned and looked at his mother. “Mom?”

“I’ll admit, I don’t actually know how the story ends. But I know the important parts.”

Inko rose from her place on the boat’s floor and walked towards him.

“It’s a love story. I know you hate those, but this one is good. The boy had two great loves: his people, and sea. He undertook a long journey. It wasn’t an easy thing. He was injured, you see.”

Inko’s hand slid across the torn surface of Izuku’s sail as she walked the length of and behind it.

“But of course, injures heal. They leave scars, like tattoos from experience.” Across her shoulders and back, Inko’s stingray tattoo sparkled like stars on her glowing skin. “Scars and tattoos, while painful, mark us for the better. They show us what we’ve done, where we’ve been, who we are.”

She stopped. Inko had rounded the sail and was now standing on the other side of the boat. She peered at Izuku thoughtfully.

“Who /are/ you?” she asked.

“Me?” Izuku muttered. “I … I’m Deku! I’m the son of the village crazy-lady.” He laughed for moment, then grew serious. “People say I’m dependable, and loyal. That’s because I love my family, and our home. And I’m the dreamer, always looking out to sea.”

“What else?” Inko prodded.

“I’m the son of the last village chief, who died mysteriously on the ocean. He was probably drawn to it, as I am. We are decedents of sea voyagers, who found their way across the world to find our island. I was chosen by ocean to fulfill a destiny. I found the demi-god Toshinori, and fought the Kakamora to keep them from stealing the Heart. I outsmarted the sea pirate Katsuki, and brought Toshinori to Doryoku’s lair!” Izuku wasn’t sure when, but he’d started shouting, started smiling. “I have travelled farther than anyone has in generations! I did it on my own power! And I will not give up!”

He hugged Inko; the nagging desire to stay safe in her arms wasn’t so much painful, as nostalgic. When they parted, she was already fading, but Izuku wasn’t afraid. He knew she’d be with him.

Izuku reclaimed the heart, patched his sail, and repeated to himself: “I am Izuku of Motunui. Aboard my boat, I will sail across the sea and return the Heart of Shouto.”


	2. Who You Really Are

Of all the ways Izuku imagined completing his mission, a hug certainly wasn’t one of them.

 The second time he confronted Doryoku, strangely he was calmer than the first time. Izuku knew he couldn’t outpower the god, but in his boat, he could outrun him. By simply faking the direction he was going to go, using Doryoku’s own storm clouds as cover, and swinging back at the last moment, Izuku could get past him and return Shouto’s heart to him before Doryoku could catch him.

Then it would be up to Shouto to defeat the God of Chaos and bring order to the world.

Izuku slipped past Doryoku almost too easily, but he would have been killed by fireball, if not for Toshinori returning. There was the briefest moment of surprise and doubt. With his wound, and damaged hook, one more blow would likely kill Toshinori. But, the demi-god of the wind and sea only smiled.

“Did you think I’ll let you do this alone, young Izuku?” Toshinori turned to face Doryoku once more, his cracked hook grasped tightly in his hand. “Return the heart that I stole from him. Finish this!”

And with that, Toshinori flung himself at Doryoku. Izuku would have loved to watch, to make sure that Toshinori would be okay, but the only thing he could truly do to help, was return the heart. And yet, when he sailed to Shouto’s barren island home, and climbed the jagged rocky cliffs of its expense, he was met with only an empty space where the sleeping body of Shouto should have been.

“It … can’t be…” he muttered. He looked left and right, searching for the answer, but there was nothing. Nothing but the battle raging behind him.

Turning in confusion and despair, Izuku’s mind reeled, grasping desperately for something that would fix this. He couldn’t be standing on the edge of victory, only to have failed. For a moment he watched the battle. Toshinori’s hook was broken, blasted to bits. Doryoku’s storm had parted ever so slightly, allowing him to physically get up close to deliver the killing blow. Even with the distance, Izuku saw him clearly for the first time.

He was terrifying. He was hairless and naked, his body was deformed, twisted, and scarred, burnt in places, and blackened to death in others. Izuku had never seen that blackening before, but he’d heard of it in his mother’s stories. When his people still traveled the seas, they came upon lands where the rain froze in the sky when in fell, and air was so cold it killed everything it touched and turned flesh black and rotten. The God of Chaos and Destruction was a victim of his own powers, trapped inside them, all alone.

That’s when it hit Izuku. The one question that had been bothering him. Why didn’t ocean simply return the heart? It could kill Doryoku, if it wanted, by submerging him. Izuku had seen how Doryoku’s body reacted to water. It broke apart and dissolved, his burned, frostbitten flesh too delicate to get wet. But now Izuku understood. Why would the ocean want to hurt him?

Doryoku raised his arm to strike Toshinori down, but Izuku lifted the heart and caught his attention. All at once, Doryoku stopped. It was like he’d forgotten all about Toshinori and the fight. Izuku walked to the water’s edge with the heart above his head

“Let him come to me,” he muttered, and the ocean obeyed.

“Young Izuku! What are *cough* doing?!”

Izuku ignored Toshinori. The events would explain themselves.

They walked toward one another. Doryoku roared with fury, and seemed intent on ripping Izuku head off. Izuku walked calmly, in peace knowing it was over.

“Please!” Izuke called through the storm. “Please, I’ve travelled all this way to find you! I know who you are.” Doryoku didn’t seem to hear him; the storm howled louder. But Izuku kept talking. “And I know it hurts. I know it hurts. But you can’t do this! Look at yourself. Look what you’re doing. This isn’t you.”

They met at last, nearer to the island than to where Doryoku had started from. Being near the god burned Izuku’s skin, but he smiled.

“Come back to us, Shouto,” Izuku said, edging forward. He wasn’t sure if expected the god to fight him, but Shouto, God of Harmony and Life, stood still while Izuku put his heart back in his chest.

As soon as the Heart was back in its rightful place, everything changed. Shouto took a breath, as if he’d been holding it all that time. The storm faded, and the air stilled. The temperature evened out and earth began to bloom with plants and flowers. It started at Shouto’s feet and crawled out in ripples, over the hills and cliffs, softening and greening everything until the desolate crag that had been Doryoku’s lair was a beautiful paradise once more.

When Izuku turned back to the god, Shouto was different. His skin was alive and healthy, pale as clouds with a rosy undertone like the sunset over the ocean on a hot day. His hair was white one side, and red on the other. But he wasn’t completely free of Doryoku. There was scar over half his face, right under the flower petal red of his hair.

“Your face!” Izuku exclaimed, reaching to touch the scar on instinct alone.

Shouto caught his hand gently and placed is palm flat against his hand. The god’s hands were warm, and the scarring was a soft as sea foam.

“It’s okay,” Shouto said. “I’m okay.” Then he let go of Izuku’s hand and pulled him into a hug.

They stood together for a moment, hugging and breathing together, until there was a scream, and they parted to see Toshinori washed up near them by an ocean wave.

“Toshinori!” Izuku exclaimed and let go of Shouto. “Are you alright?”

Coughing, Toshinori nodded. “Yep, fine. I … oh hello, your godliness.”

“All-Might,” Shouto said. “Demi-god of the wind and sea.”

“Please, call me Toshinori.” Toshinori paused, looked from Shouto to Izuku and back again, then grinned. “I mean, if you want, your godliness. Sorry about the whole stealing-your-heart thing. Honestly, I thought taking the seat of your power would stop Doryoku from manifesting. Who knew that he was you all along?”

“I did. That’s why I put myself to sleep.” Shouto crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.

“Well, ehem. I see.”

“But,” Shouto said. “You helped save me. I can’t overlook that. I can’t undo the damage I did to your body, but I can buy you part of your power back.” Shouto untucked his arms and waved his head, and in swirl of wind and flower petals a new hook appeared. “Humanity need its hero, Toshinori.”

Slowly, reverently, Toshinori took hold of hook. Izuku could see the power flowing from it to Toshinori’s form, and smiled at the sight.

“And for you, Izuku of Motunui,” Shouto said and waved his hand again. This time a boat appeared, well stocked, and ready to travel. “To get you home.”

“And back again!” Izuku said. “I mean. If you want, your godliness. I could visit. It must get so lonely out here.”

Shouto paused a minute, then smiled. “I’d … like that. I’d like it if you both came to see me, once in a while. But for now, I think I’d better rest.” Shouto turned and lead them into the heart of jungle where an exceptional and grand bed covered in flowering vines stood in a glade filtered with sunshine. He yawned as he approached and climbed onto bed. “Just … shake my shoulder when you come back, this time.”

“We promise not to touch anything, your godliness!” Toshinori exclaimed.

Shouto gave him a deadpan look, but with a roll of his eyes, smiled and settled in for a nap.

“How long should we leave him for?” Izuku whispered.

“Give him a year or two. I’m sure he’s exhausted from being a chaos monster.”

They walked back to shore together, talking about what they would do next, and already reminiscing about their adventure.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come back with me, Toshinori? My people are going to need a master wayfinder.”

Toshinori smiled as he heaved his glowing hook onto his shoulder. “They already have one, young Izuku. The best in generations.”


End file.
